Ratings And Rankings

The latest Sagarin Rating is out and if you are a Dartmouth fan it's not pretty. Here's how Dartmouth and its opponents are rated, with a few other schools mixed in for perspective:

88 New Hampshire
89 Colorado State
90 Tennessee
91 Louisville
92 New Mexico
93 UCLA ...
120 Harvard
129 Holy Cross
143 Yale
145 Brown
147 Colgate
148 Tulane ...
156 Pennsylvania
181 Princeton
192 Cornell
201 Columbia
221 TennesseeTech
222 Duquesne
223 Dartmouth
224 Morehead State
225 NC Central
226 Georgetown
227 Marist
228 Davidson
229 Drake
230 Alabama A&M ...
245 Cambell

Sagarin suggests game predictions can be made by using the ratings (not rankings) for each team. He has Dartmouth rated at 35.08 this week and Princeton at 46.06. Assuming a 3-point home field advantage, he would have the Tigers favored by almost exactly two touchdowns.

How has Sagarin fared so far this fall? He's had every Dartmouth outcome correct, although the margin has been a litle greater than anticipated in all nine games.

The FCS Coaches Poll is in and the four Dartmouth opponents in the voting should surprise no one:

11. UNH
16. Harvard
22. Colgate
31. Holy Cross

The Sports Network Poll shows two more Dartmouth opponents collecting votes:

11. UNH
19. Harvard
21. Colgate
26. Holy Cross
40. Brown
45. Yale

Thanks to an Alert reader, we've been all over the possibility of a four-way tie in the Ivy League for a couple of weeks now. But it's late in the year and I'm getting lazy, so instead of sketching it out for you, I'm going to lift the full scenario from the Yale press notes. (C'mon, that's why they put them out there ;-)

For the first time in 52 seasons of Ivy League history, four teams could end up sharing the football championship. Harvard is tied for first with Brown (6-3, 5-1) while Yale and Penn (6-3, 4-2) are tied for second. Brown hosts Columbia (2-7, 2-4) while the Quakers head to Cornell (4-5, 2-4). Here's what can happen.

1. If Yale wins and Brown falls, the Elis, Crimson and Bears would be tied for first. Penn could share the crown with a win.

2. If Harvard and Brown win, both schools share the title at 6-1. Yale could share second if Penn loses.

3. If Yale and Brown win, the Bears have the outright title.

4. If Harvard wins and Brown goes down, the Cantabs have the outright championship.

On the non-conference front, New Hampshire can earn an NCAA playoff berth Saturday. From The Sports Network:

The winner between New Hampshire and Maine will capture the CAA North Division crown and can count on a call from the selection committee on Saturday.

If New Hampshire falls, they will have a long, sleepless night to see if they get into the field after losing two of their last three games. If Maine comes up short, they will be done with four losses.

It's rubbing salt in the wound a little but here's the AP lede on Maine's game last Saturday:

Jared Turcotte ran for 121 yards and three touchdowns as Maine rolled over Rhode Island, 37-7.

Turcotte, of course, was the Maine high schooler that wanted very much to come to Dartmouth. While you have to be disappointed the 6-foot-2, 232 redshirt freshman isn't in Hanover, he also expressed some interest in Brown, so Big Green fans should also feel relieved that at least they didn't see him first-hand on Saturday.

Also from TSN:

Holy Cross (7-3, 5-0) hosts Colgate (8-2, 4-0) on Saturday with the PL title and the auto bid on the line.

In futbol, the Dartmouth men's soccer team is a perfect illustration of how helpful playing a tough schedule can be. While the Big Green tied with Penn for the Ivy League title, Dartmouth has a bye in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and then a home game next Tuesday. The Quakers, meanwhile, not only have to play in the opening round, but also travel. Harvard also made the field, meaning that while no football team will be going on, three Ivy League soccer teams will be playing on, including at least one that will at least be in the second round. Good for soccer, but something is wrong folks.

And finally, a story in the Brown Daily Herald caught my eye. The lede:

For the first time in recent memory, the majority of grades Brown students received last year were A's, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research.

The proportion of A's given increased to 50.6 percent in 2007-08, 1.1 percent higher than the previous year and a new peak for a figure that has risen significantly over the last decade. Since the 1994-95 academic year, the proportion of A's given has increased 15.8 percent.

Here's my question: Why didn't this happen when I was in college?

A couple more notes from the story:

In 2004, Princeton became the first Ivy to cap A's, setting a goal that only 35 percent be awarded.

And this, which makes a lot of sense to me (but then I wasn't one of those "A" people:

Valen Johnson, author of "Grade Inflation: A Crisis in College Education" and a professor at the University of Texas, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that a more talented student body shouldn't alter the grades students receive.

"Grades are a comparative measure of student performance among students at the same university," he wrote. "If a college admits particularly talented students, then a C must be defined relative to that university's student pool."